A Fallible "Fail-Safe": An Analysis of Provisional Balloting Problems in the 2006 Election

A Fallible 'Fail-Safe' provides a snapshot of provisional balloting problems experienced by voters across the nation in November 2006, as reported by Election Protection volunteers. While provisional ballots may comprise only a fraction of the national vote, as this report shows, they determined the outcome of various electoral races in 2006

Toward an Equal Electorate

The 2008 presidential election is historic, with election officials anticipating record turnout. While voter registration and turnout in U.S. elections historically has been skewed toward those with higher incomes, there are indications this may be changing. Toward an Equal Electorate draws upon available data to show that low-income voter registration in public assistance agencies have increased anywhere from 22 percent to over 2,600 percent compared to previous years. In the five states examined--North Carolina, Michigan, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Missouri--an additional 125,290 low-income voters have registered at public assistance agencies prior to the November election, most within the past several months

Expanding Voter Registration for Low-Income Virginians: The Impact of the National Voter Registration Act

Voter registrations in Virginia public assistance agencies declined by 87 percent between 1995-1996 and 2005-2006, despite increased enrollment in public benefit programs like food stamps. Field investigators in early 2008 confirmed that state offices were not offering voter registration, as required by the National Voter Registration Act. Working cooperatively with Demos and its state partners, Virginia has achieved a dramatic change of course. The first several data reports indicate an eightfold increase in voter registrations

Expanding Voter Registration for Low-Income Citizens

This paper outlines and highlights the outstanding and thorough work of the North CarolinaState Board of Elections in responding to evidence that the state was falling short of National Voting Rights Act (NVRA) Section 7 requirements. In 18 months, the state became a model for NVRA compliance, boasting an almost six-fold increase in the number of public assistance clients registering to vote

Sustainable Pharmacy: A Regimen for the Future

This article serves to introduce some of the issues that the pharmacy industry faces regarding sustainable practices and how to address them. The industry of pharmacy creates waste and pollution via improper drug disposal, medication waste, and operational waste. Thus, it is important for the industry to look towards reducing waste and pollution in order to increase sustainability, benefitting both patients and the world at large.1, 2 Pharmacy is moving towards a more sustainable future, but balancing the needs of patients, legal requirements, economic considerations, and the safety and efficacy of medication poses a difficult task. To address many of these needs, policy changes at state and federal levels will need to be implemented, but these can take years. Community pharmacists have the ability to make meaningful changes now when they interact directly with patients at the counter. Educating patients about the importance of appropriate drug use, their options regarding drug-take backs, and paperless methods of communication can improve awareness for and address these issues by making adjustments at the community level first. Drug waste can be minimized and then disposed of properly. The paper and plastic waste inherently part of pharmacy business operations can be reduced. Electronic methods of information delivery such as electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) and computerized documentation can be implemented. The plastic composing medication stock bottles can be recycled and repurposed.3 Though various barriers exist in implementing such changes, these issues can be addressed by pharmacists immediately while legislation changes occur in the long run

A finite element formulation of the outlet gradient boundary condition for convective-diffusive transport problems

A simple finite element formulation of the outlet gradient boundary condition is presented in the general context of convective-diffusive transport processes. Basically, the method is based on an upstream evaluation of the dependent variable gradient along open boundaries. Boundary normal unit vectors and gradient operators are evaluated using covariant bases and metric tensors, which allow handling finite elements of mixed dimensions. Even though the presented method has implications for many fields where diffusion processes are involved, discussion and illustrative examples address more particularly the framework of contaminant transport in porous media, in which the outlet gradient concentration is classically, but wrongly assumed to be zero.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figure

Unequal Access: Neglecting the National Voter Registration Act, 1995-2007

Recognizing that burdensome and discriminatory voter registration laws have a damaging impact on American democracy, Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) in 1993 to make voter registration more accessible, with the hope of reducing disparities in voting among various populations. The NVRA remains one of the nation's most important voting rights laws.Although millions of citizens have taken advantage of voter registration opportunities created by the NVRA, key provisions of the law meant to reach populations with low voter registration rates have been poorly and inconsistently administered in many states.Specifically, states have failed to adequately implement--and the Department of Justice has in recent years failed in their duty to enforce--NVRA provisions that require states to offer voter registration in government agencies providing public assistance benefits.Unequal Access: Neglecting the National Voter Registration Act, 1995-2007details the following:The number of voter registration applications from public assistance agencies in 2005-2006 is a small fraction of what it was in 1995-1996, when the NVRA was first implemented (see Figure 1 and Tables 1a and 1b). Indeed, registrations from public assistance agencies declined by 79 percent during this time.The decline in registrations from public assistance agencies occurred despite the fact that millions of citizens from low-income households remain unregistered. In 2006, 13 million, or 40 percent of, voting-aged citizens from households earning under $25,000 were unregistered .Many states frequently fail to report data on their public assistance agency registrations to the Elections Assistance Commission (EAC), as required for the EAC's biennial report to Congress.Recent surveys of clients at public assistance agency sites in more than half a dozen states have found numerous instances where voter registration was not being offered as required by the NVRA; voter registration applications were completely absent at some agency sites.States that have adopted improved NVRA procedures have seen dramatic increases in voter registrations at public assistance agencies, indicating the potential for substantial improvement in other states.The Department of Justice has taken little action in recent years to enforce the public assistance agency registration requirements of the NVRA, despite being repeatedly presented with strong evidence of states' noncompliance.Based on the outcomes in states where recent compliance efforts have been undertaken, states can improve their compliance with the NVRA and increase the number of low-income citizens registering to vote by implementing recommended procedures, outlined in this report, to improve training, monitoring and reporting by agencies.The NVRA is the only federal law requiring the government to affirmatively offer voter registration to broad segments of the population. Because of noncompliance with the NVRA, however, the rights of thousands of low-income citizens are violated daily across the nation. Project Vote and Demos call on state election and public assistance officials to take immediate action to properly implement this important civil rights law. We also call on the Department of Justice to fulfill its role by actively enforcing the NVRA's requirement for voter registration at public assistance agencies

Barriers to the Rural Women of Ranong, Thailand to Accessing Education Using Information and Communication Technology.

The purpose of this research is to develop an understanding of rural women's barriers and challenges to education an access to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the province of Ranong, Thailand. For women in rural areas education is an opportunity to acquire knowledge and skills for their rapidly changing world. ICT is an effective means of delivering such education. Due to the interactive nature of ICT, women have the opportunity to access education not otherwise available, and a voice in the development of education programs that address their unique needs. For this reason, a primary hypothesis held by the international community is that access to information and communication technologies will contribute and enhance women’s lives. ICT are considered a crucial tool for distributed learning, networking, collaboration, e-commerce and e-government. The Government of Thailand has developed a National IT Policy Framework, IT 2010. This policy prioritizes the development of good practices with information and communication technologies to address the growing digital divide between developed and developing countries. Equitable access to education for all is also stressed in Thailand's educational and ICT policies, yet the reality is more difficult to attain. The premise of this study is that rural women need to be consulted and be key participants in the design, development and implementation of education and ICT programs. One hundred women throughout the province of Ranong were interviewed regarding their educational barriers and their access to ICT. The women ranged in age from 19 to 70 and came from various ethnic, religious, geographical and socio-economic backgrounds. This research concludes by presenting the difference between international and the Thai government's education and ICT policies and the reality of rural women's lives regarding education and ICT access. This research is an initial process in understanding what needs to be in place for rural Thai women to command and make their own opportunities in ICT and education development

Real-Time Analysis of Nanostructure Formation on Gallium Antimonide

Quantum dots are nanocrystalline semi-conductive dot like structures that exhibit quantum mechanical properties. These structures have applications to solar cells, photon detectors, diagnostic imaging. One of the most promising ways to create quantum dots and other nanostructures is through noble gas ion bombardment. However, there is no current complete mathematical model, which can accurately predict nanostructure features based on the target material, ion energy, incident angle, temperature and a number of other parameters. In order to contribute to early stage nanostructure surface morphology modeling, Gallium Antimonite (GaSb) was first etched with a HCl solution and irradiated using Ar+, Kr+, Xe+ and Ne+ plasmas at 500 eV while a 0.2 degree10 keV incident photon beam gave real time surface-structuring analysis through Grazing Incidence Small Angle X-Ray Spectroscopy (GISAXS). All irradiations produced quantum dot structures on GaSb, evident by the symmetrical peaks in the parallel space (Fourier transform of reflected intensity) GISAXS plots. The exact arrangement of these structures needs to be confirmed with SEM, but the amplitude of the dots as well as the spacing appears to vary with the incident ions used. Photoluminescence testing will hopefully reveal increased photon absorption in the UV range. The photoluminescence results will hopefully reveal photon detection applications, while the overall analysis over the structures will contribute to producing an accurate mathematical model

Response to Corner Brook Pulp & Paper Tire Derived Fuel (TDF) Co-Firing Trial Project Proponent: Corner Brook Pulp & Paper Ltd. (Reg. 1539)

While acknowledging potential economic benefits for Corner Brook Pulp and Paper (CBPP) in using tire-derived fuel (TDF), we remain unconvinced of the net public and environmental health benefits of its use and are concerned with the methodology of the proposed test. We hope that this overview of our concerns can help the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) make an informed decision regarding the testing of TDF at CBPP. Guiding our submission is the precautionary principle, which has been adopted by all relevant parties, including the Government of Canada, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador and CBPP. As such and in light of the issues below, it is our position that additional research is required before moving to a test trial. This can be achieved either by conducting a full Environmental Impact Statement, including component studies and additional public hearings, or by rejecting the undertaking outright